Ver. 1. For thee have I seen righteous before me.] Not only before men, as Pharisees, (Luke 16:15) and civil justiciaries, (Romans 2:29) but before me who see the inside, and love “truth in the hidden man of the heart”. (Psalms 51:6 1 Peter 3:5) And here Noah’s sincerity prevailed with God for his safety, as did likewise Lot’s, whom God hid in Zoar; and Abram’s, to whom God was a shield to save him from the deadly thrusts of destruction, when he pursued the four kings and foiled them, because he “walked before him, and was upright.” (Genesis 15:1 14:15) So true is that of Solomon, “He that walketh uprightly, walketh safely,” (Proverbs 10:9) as if he were in a tower of brass, or town of war. And again, “In the fear of the Lord is strong confidence, and his children have a place of refuge”. (Proverbs 14:26) The old Rock is still ready to relieve them. (Isaiah 26:3) In this generation.] Called by St Peter, “a world of ungodly ones,” (2 Peter 2:5) far worse, no doubt, than those in Enoch’s days. The greater praise was it to Noah, that, by a holy antiperistasis, he kindled from their coldness, and became nothing the worse, but much the better (as it is the nature of true goodness) by their oppositions. It was an invincible faith, whereby he both conquered the world and “condemned” it. What else could have carried him over so many difficulties, as he must needs encounter? Well might the apostle say, “By faith he prepared an ark”. (Hebrews 12:7) For if he had been led by sense, he would have fled as far as Jonah did, ere ever he had gone about it.
Ver. 2. Of every clean beast thou shalt take by sevens.] Three pair for generation, and a single one for sacrifice, after the flood was past. Genesis 8:20 God must have a share; and good reason. But that two only of a sort, of the unclean hurtful creatures were preserved, note his fatherly providence. To this day we see, though sheep and birds be so killed up for man’s use, yet there are far more of them, than of other unserviceable or cruel creatures. Besides, the weaker creatures go in herds together, the stronger and more savage go alone. For if they should go in multitudes, no man nor beast could stand before them. This you shall find set down to your hand. Job 37:8 Ps 104:17-30 Ammianus Marcellinus writeth, “that in Chaldea there are a huge number of lions, which were like enough to devour up both men and beasts throughout the country. But withal, he saith, that by reason of the store of water and mud thereof, there breed yearly an innumerable company of gnats, whose property is to flee into the eye of the lion, as being a bright and orient thing, where, biting and stinging the lion, he teareth so fiercely with the claws, that he puts out his own eyes; and by that means many are drowned in the rivers, others starve for want of prey, and many the more easily killed by the inhabitants. Bodin telleth us, that the wolf never seeth his sire, his dam, nor his young: for that the herd of wolves set upon, and killeth that wolf, which by the smell they perceive to have coupled with the she wolf; which unless they did, what a deal of mischief would be done by them everywhere among cattle! Bodin. in Theatro., lib. iii.
Ver. 3. Of fowls also.] Such as are of clean kinds, as R. Solomon senseth it. The eagle and the lion were not for sacrifice; like as were the lamb and the dove. “Not many mighty,” &c. (1 Corinthians 1:26)
Ver. 4. For yet seven days, &c.] God could have destroyed them by water, or otherwise, in a far shorter space: But, of his free grace, he gives them yet seven days further, and then rains upon the earth forty days, as, not willing that any should “eternally perish, but that all should come to repentance”. (2 Peter 3:9) The Hebrew doctors are very injurious to Noah, because we read not that he prayed for the old world, but only took care of himself, and his own family, censuring him therefore of self-love and hard-heartedness. So they judge very uncharitably of those that perished in the flood; sending them all to hell, and wresting some scriptures thereunto; as, that in this present verse, God saith, he will destroy them, or blot them out; that is, say they, out of the land of the world to come, the land of the living. I deny not, but many of their “spirits are in prison”; so saith St Peter. (1 Peter 3:19) But withal, in the next chapter, the same apostle tells us, that “for this cause the gospel was preached also to them that are dead, that they might be judged according to men in the flesh, but live according to God in the spirit”. (1 Peter 4:6) Compare these words with those in 1 Peter 3:18-20, and it will appear, the apostle speaks of these antediluvians. All were not saved that were in the ark, nor all damned, we may well think, that were out of it. Could they see their “foundation overflown with a flood,” as the phrase is, (Job 22:16) and “not lay for themselves a good foundation” by “laying hold on eternal life”? (1 Timothy 6:19) St Ambrose conceiveth, that Noah was seven days in the Ark, before the flood came; that as God was six days in creating the world, and rested the seventh; so these perishing persons, admonished by the number of the days of the creation, might “remember their creator,” (Ecclesiastes 12:1) and make their peace. Nunquam sero, si serio. R. Menachem, in loc.